Wednesday, September 8, 2010

If you take up exercising again after a long break and weight gain like me, or if your response is "Exercise? What is that?", then please spare some consideration for your knees.

Note to self: Before you go crazy with jumping jacks, take a minute or two each day to strengthen the muscles supporting your knees! OUCH

I really went with a lot of gusto for Jillian's 30 day shred. Great program...but with a lot of rope jumps and jumping jacks .... and I have sore knees to show for it.

I know that I need to condition and train the muscles around y knees so that I do not end up injuring my knees. But all that knowledge apparently went out of the window! yuck

So here I am feeling each and every jumping jack as I struggle to sleep in my bed!

Some simple tricks to strengthen your knees...

a) Assisted lunges..as many as you can for each leg for a week. Unassisted thereafter.
b)Reverse leg curls ..again as many as you can.This will condition your hamstrings
c) Finally, stand with legs shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent. Extend your left leg diagonally behind your right leg and hold the stretch. Repeat with other leg. Repeat as many times as you want. This should stretch the outside of the muscles around your knees.

Monday, August 9, 2010

I bought the 30 day shred last year around December along with "No More Trouble Zones", also by Jillian. I tried it for a month, however did not stick to the program as prescribed. Why did I not stick to the program? Big reason why and let me elaborate.

I will start my saying that 30 day shred DVD is excellent. The format is very manageable. There are three levels of boot-camp like circuits. Each harder than the previous level. The idea is to do each level for about 10 days and move on to the next level. The level starts with warm-up of couple minutes, followed by two sets of two exercises each. These are then followed by a set of cardio exercises like plyometrics.

The warm-up is kinda goofy -not your usual kind. Jillian does some old school routines like knee rotations. I am not sure how doing knee rotations exactly aids in preparing our bodies for whats to come next. But that's not a biggie at all and only a minor quibble.

Once we are done with warm-up, the first resistance circuit consists or two exercises- one a quick set of 30 seconds with high resistance and then a 1 minute set of low weight and long reps. For example, in the first level, we do full body push-ups for 30 seconds and then over head rows for one minute.

I loved doing level one for 2 days- by third day I got BORED. I persevered, but by 5th day I could not take it and switched levels even though I was not doing the first level to the intended physical level.

I have since done it on and off...owing in part to my laziness and desire to switch up my workout all the time.

So, if you are in decent shape but doing just cardio or running type of exercised with no body conditioning included AND you do not mind somewhat repetitive exercises ~ then 30 day shred is great for you.

I would still take a break in between. Go three days, take a break and go another 3 days and so on.

About Me

A gal on a fitness kick. I hope to loose a lot of weight and gain a lot of health. Till a few years ago, I worked out hard, was very active and looked and felt fabulous.
Fast forward to today and I am overweight(ahem) and not completely healthy. This time around I am trying new tricks to achieve my goal. Low carb eating and high intensity interval training is my way this time around.
This blog will chronicle my progress along with my thought process.